Male Homosexual Attraction to Minors Information Center
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Myths and Facts about male homosexual attraction to minors

Myth 1: All pedophiles and ephebophiles are child molesters.

Facts:

Child molestation is a crime. Pedophilia and ephebophilia are not.

Myth 2: Pedophiles and ephebophiles are violent and want power over their sexual partners.

Facts:

Researchers write:

Glenn D. Wilson, University of London Institute of Psychiatry, and David N. Cox, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia:

Our results are also consistent with previous findings in failing to discover any obvious links between paedophilia and aggressive or psychotic symptoms. The majority of paedophiles, however socially inappropriate, seem to be gentle and rational.9

Paul Okami, Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles:

Virtually all research in this field, including studies by the victimologists under discussion, documents the low incidence of violence or forceful coercion in cases of adult human sexual behavior with children and adolescents.10

Myth 3: Pedophiles and ephebophiles were sexually abused as children.

Facts:

Researchers write:

Randall J. Garland and Michael J. Dougher, Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico:

The available evidence indicates that...sexual contact with an adult during childhood or adolescence is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of adult sexual interest in children or adolescents...The abused/abuser hypothesis--the belief that sexual behavior between adults and children or adolescents causes those children and adolescents, as adults, to become sexually involved with other children and adolescents--is inadequate and incorrect...the so-called "abused/abuser hypothesis" is simplistic and misleading.12

Myth 4: Pedophiles are always adults.

Facts:

Researchers write:

Jay Feierman, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico:

Materials, as well as interested and compassionate professionals and nonprofessionals, are available to an adolescent or a young-adult male who is personally dealing with his homosexuality. These resources simply are not available in most Western industrialized societies for an adolescent or a young-adult male who is dealing with a preferential sexual attraction to children or younger adolescents.15

Myth 5: Pedophiles and ephebophiles are psychosexually immature or fear relationships with adults.

Facts:

There is no evidence to support the common belief that sexual attraction to children or adolescents in adulthood is related to fixation at an immature stage of development or aversion to adults:16

Researchers write:

Theodorus Sandfort, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands:

Psychiatric literature has played an important role in establishing this misconception: in it one reads that pedophilia occurs in regressive personalities who are frightened of sexual contact with women and have not sufficient social skills to be able to get along with adults. Such stereotyping is completely without empirical support. There is no research which justifies any kind of type-casting of "the" pedophile, assuming such research would even be possible.17

Myth 6: Pedophiles and ephebophiles are socially inadequate or unassertive, or have low intelligence.

Facts:

Myth 7: Pedophiles and ephebophiles are psychopathic or neurotic.

Facts:

Researchers write:

Paul Okami and Amy Goldberg, Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles:

Surprisingly little clinically significant pathology of any sort has been found among these groups...Our findings are consistent with those of Langevin...that "None of the commonly held hypotheses were supported."24

Myth 8: Child sexual abuse is a recognizable syndrome that can be diagnosed by the presence of certain symptoms.

Facts:

Child sexual abuse is not a syndrome or illness, but rather an event. Furthermore, it is defined by the law, not by psychological science. As a result, a wide variety of incidents are defined as sexual abuse, and they may bear little resemblance to each other.

Thus, different children and adolescents found to be sexually abused may have experienced very different events:29

Children identified as sexually abused are similar to each other only in that they have been exposed to sexual behavior deemed to be inappropriate, socially unacceptable, or harmful.31

As a result, there is no set of reactions that is a single inevitable outcome of what is called child sexual abuse. There is no particular identifying syndrome or set of symptoms, such as multiple personality disorder or borderline personality disorder.32

Myth 9: Boys are always severely harmed by sexual activity with adults.

Facts:33

Researchers seem to agree that there is no set of reactions that is a single inevitable outcome of adult-minor sexual interaction, such as some sort of personality disorder. Negative outcomes seem to be associated with the following:34

Researchers write:

Thomas D. Oellerich, Department of Social Work, Ohio University:

The notion that child sexual abuse is a "destroyer" of mental health has been based largely on studies involving clinical samples. But even these, if objectively considered, indicated that child sexual abuse is neither necessarily nor usually psychologically harmful. That is, for the vast majority child sexual abuse is not a "destroyer" of mental health at any age...the widespread belief that child sexual abuse necessarily and usually causes psychological damage is a myth.35

Myth 10: It is known that a large proportion of children are severely sexually abused in childhood.

Facts:

Researchers disagree on the the prevalence of sexual abuse. Estimates for boys range from 1% to 30%. Variations are due to several factors:36

Definitions of abuse are usually very broad:37

Some scientists have written that this leads to inflated and shocking estimates of the prevalence of abuse, and misleads the public into believing that all incidents are similar to the rape of young children.38

Researchers write:

David M. Fergusson, Christchurch School of Medicine, and Paul E. Mullen, Monash University:

The popular rendition of the literature on CSA has frequently resulted in trite conclusions that are chanted like sacred mantras about the proportion of children who are sexually abused. However, underlying these trite and perhaps socially convenient claims, there is a complex body of evidence that is both highly variable and by no means easy to interpret. Reducing this evidence to claims that one in four (or whatever fraction of) children is subject to sexual abuse conceals the very real uncertainties, debates, and issues that surround this evidence.39

Sources

1. Feierman, 1990a; Freund, 1981; Okami & Goldberg, 1992.
2. Gieles, 2001; Hall et al., 1995; Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Sandfort, 1987.
3. Ames & Houson, 1990; Freund, 1981; Okami & Goldberg, 1992.
4. Howells, 1981; Sandfort, 1987.
5. Bradford et al., 1988; Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Wilson & Cox, 1983.
6. Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Sandfort, 1987; Wilson & Cox, 1983.
7. Li, 1990b; Sandfort, 1987; Wilson & Cox, 1983.
8. Ames & Houson, 1990; Bradford et al., 1988; Constantine, 1981; Crawford, 1981; Hall, 1996; Howells, 1981; Ingram, 1981; Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Virkkunen, 1981; West, 1998; West & Woodhouse, 1990.
9. Wilson & Cox, 1983.
10. Okami, 1990.
11. Garland & Dougher, 1990.
12. Garland & Dougher, 1990.
13. Freund & Kuban, 1993.
14. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999*; Center for Sex Offender Management, 1999*.
15. Feierman, 1990b.
16. Langevin, 1983; Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Sandfort, 1987.
17. Sandfort, 1987.
18. Okami & Goldberg, 1992.
19. Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Wilson & Cox, 1983.
20. Langevin, 1983; Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Wilson & Cox, 1983.
21. Langevin, 1983; Okami & Goldberg, 1992.
22. Langevin, 1983.
23. Okami & Goldberg, 1992; Wilson & Cox, 1983.
24. Okami & Goldberg, 1992.
25. Haugaard, 2000.
26. West, 1998.
27. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999*; Center for Sex Offender Management, 1999*.
28. Fergusson & Mullen, 1999.
29. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999*; Haugaard, 2000; West, 1998.
30. Li, 1990a.
31. Fergusson & Mullen, 1999.
32. Beitchman et al., 1992; Constantine, 1981; Fergusson & Mullen, 1999; Ingram, 1981; Kilpatrick, 1987; West & Woodhouse, 1990.
33. Beitchman et al., 1991; Beitchman et al., 1992; Bernard, 1981; Constantine, 1981; Fergusson & Mullen, 1999; Fromuth & Burkhart, 1989; Haugaard & Emery, 1989; Li, 1990a; Ney et al., 1994; Oellerich, 2001*; Rind et al., 1998; Rind & Tromovitch, 1997; West & Woodhouse, 1990.
34. Beitchman et al., 1992; Constantine, 1981; Fergusson & Mullen, 1999; Ingram, 1981; Kilpatrick, 1987; West & Woodhouse, 1990.
35. Oellerich, 2001*.
36. Fergusson & Mullen, 1999; Haugaard & Emery, 1989.
37. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999*; Haugaard, 2000; Li, 1990a; Okami, 1990; Okami & Goldberg, 1992; West, 1998.
38. Okami, 1990; Okami & Goldberg, 1992.
39. Fergusson & Mullen, 1999.
*offsite articles
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